Process of producing a graduated printing-surface on etched or engraved plates, electrotypes, and stereotypes.



w. 1. W1CKERS M. M. FURLONG. RADUATED PRlNTlNG SURFACE ON ETC ELECTROTYPES, AND-STEREOTYPESV NEWED MAR. 14,1911- APPLICATlON FILED JAN. 22, 1902- RE I 1250 4.03. I I Patented De@.18,1917.

PROCESS OF PRODUCING A G HED ORENGRAVED PLATES,

swim; 6% 32 012m) arm g v UNITED srarns PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER J. WICKERS AND rernicx M. rUnLoNe, or BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

PROCESS OF PRODUCING A GRADUATED PRINTING-SURFACE 0N ETCHED OR ENGRAVED PLATES, ELECTROTYIPES, AND STEBEOTYPES.

Patented Dec. 18, 1917.

Application filed January 22, 1902, Serial No. 90,811. Renewed March 14, 1917. Serial No. 154,905.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WALTER J. lVIoKnRs and PATRICK M. FURLoNo, citizens of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, city of New York, State of New York, have invented a Process of Producing a Graduated Printing-Surface on Etched or Engraved Plates, Electrotypes, and Stereotypes; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it apper tains to make and use the same.

Our invention consists of a method of producing a graduated printing surface on relief or incised plates by lowering the surfaces carrying the lighter tones and raising those carrying the darker to! as. To do this we remove by ordinary routing or etching with acids the parts of the back of the plate directly opposite to the lighter parts of the face of the plate, the greatest amount of material being removed from the portion of the back of the plate opposite to the lightest part of the face, and graduating with the various tones, leaving the full thickness of the plate under the darkest tones. Instead of reducing the thickness of the plate as just described, we may underlay the different tones of the picture on the face of the plate by applying to the back of the plate graduated thicknesses of paper, or equivalent material, said graduated thicknesses of paper forming an underlay, the thickness and thinness of which corresponds to the dark and lighter tones respectively, of the picture, so that the graduations will ultimately appear in the printing surface of the plate when the treatment of said plate is completed in accordance with our invention. After treating the plate in this way it is placed with its face in wax or other suitable material and pressure exerted against its back by an even unyielding surface. By this means, the graduation on the back of the plate, produced by the removal therefrom of material as above described, is transferred to the face, and the plate may be directly printed from. In addition, a mold or matrix of the perfected plate is formed in the wax or other material into which its face is pressed. A copper shell may be deposited upon this mold or matrix and an electrotype plate made in the usual manner. Or a stereotype plate may be made from this impression, as a matrix,'in'the usual manner.

The degree of graduation is easily c011- trolled by the operator and adjusted to'the kind of printing and paper which it is intended for. Y The method now practised in printing from etched or engraved plates is, first to even the plate by under-laying, after which the overlay is adjusted'to the pressure cylinder so as to give more pressure on the darker parts and less upon the lighter. This making ready is more or less elaborated according to the character of the work, requires artistic judgment and much mechanical skill on the part of the operator, and consumes a great deal of time, besides which the pressure and plate cylinder are thrown out of adjustment. Also, unless both cylinders are of exactly the same size throughout,

there results an unequal wear upon the plates. Our method of producing a graduated printing surface does away almost entirely with making ready and obviates the necessity of an overlay on the cylinder or on the plate, thus saving much time and expense. 7 a 1 In the drawing, Figure 1 represents a severed part of an ordinary printing plate of metal, with a drawing represented thereon, produced in the usual manner by lines, all of which reach to a level on the upper surface of the plate, which upper surface is represented in all of the figures by the letter A. In this drawing there are dark tones in the hill a. The tones of the hill 1) and the hill 0 are progressively lighter than the tones of the hill at, and are of differing degrees of darkness.

Fig. 2, shows the bottom of the same printing plate as shown in Fig. 1, with the same drawing upon its surface B, exactly opposite in all its parts to the drawing upon the upper surface A.

Fig. 3 shows the same printing plate with the portions of the metal at the lighter tones, I

cut or etched away, leaving projections upon the face B corresponding to the dark tones, and Varying in height proportionately to the shade of these tones, the highest plane of projection being left for the hill at and a somewhat lower plane of projection for the hill 7), and a still lower plane of elevation for the hill 0.

Fig. 4 shows the plate prepared as described resting upon its upper surface A upon a level sheet of wax or other suitable yielding plastic material D, and with a level press-block C, superimposed upon its under surface B, containing the different planes of elevations corresponding to the tones of the drawing as heretofore described. On exerting pressure upon the press-block C, the under surface B of the printing plate is brought nearly or quite to a level, and the different levels or projection existing upon it, are transferred to the opposite surface A.

Fig. 5 shows the printing plate removed from the press with the press-block C still superimposed, but with the projections appearing upon the surface A, according in position with the tones of the drawing, the higher projections being at the darker tones of the drawing and the lower at the lighter.

What we claim as our invention is 1. The process of making a graduated printing surface upon a printing plate which consists in placing such a plate face downward upon plastic material and in subjecting the back of the plate so placed to pressure, the pressure being applied to different areas of the back of the plate in such a way that portions of the body of the plate are displaced so as to form upon the face thereof graduations corresponding to the tones of the picture to be printed.

2. The process of simultaneously producing a graduated printing surface and a basrelief of said graduated surface in plastic material which consists in pressing a plate, the back of which is graduated corresponding to the tones of the picture to be printed, face downward in plastic material.

3. In the art of making graduated printing plates, the improvement which consists in taking a thin metallic plate having grad nations formed in the back of the plate corresponding to the tones of the picture to be printed, placing said plate face downward in yielding material, and then applying pressure to the back of the plate, and without heating said plate, whereby said graduations in the back of the plate are transferred to the face thereof.

l. The method of producing printing surfaces which consists in pressing a plate, having graduations in its back correspond ing to the tones of the picture to be printed, face downward in plastic material, thereby simultaneously producing permanent elevations and depressions in the printing face of the plate and a has-relief of said printing surface in the plastic material.

5. The method of producing printing surfaces which consists in removing material from the back of a metallic plate so as to form elevations and depressions therein corresponding to the tones of the picture to be printed, placing the plate face downward upon plastic material, and applying pressure to the back of the plate, thereby simultaneously transferring the elevations and depressions from the back to the face of the plate and producing a matrix of the printing surface in the plastic material.

6. As a new article of manufacture, a thin. yielding original plate, the printing surface of which is provided with perma nent elevations and depressions correspond ing to the tones of the picture to be printed.

WALTER J. WICKERS. PATRICK M. FUR-LONG. Witnesses Trrno. Lrn'rz, W'ILBUR F. SMITH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

